226 TIIK nVi'TLE OF INKEKMAN. CHAT VI. 2d Period. The great bulk of Cathcart's troops distributed piecemeal. Ill compliuucc with the appeals of officers sent back to ask for support from various parts of the field, Cathcart suffered his men to be taken from him with a generous readiness which shows that the idea of selfishl}' reserving to himself the means of personal distinction was altogether absent from his mind. He even entrusted to subordinate hands a power to meet re])orted em- ergencies by parting with some of his troops ; * and it resulted that before Torrens joined him, the whole force of near 1700 men brought up by Sir George, had ])een already distributed piece- meal. The destinations assigned to the left wing of the 21st Fusiliers under Lord West,f to each wing of the Eifies,| and to the right wing of the 20th under Colonel Crofton,§ we have already seen ; but it now must be added that the con- nected body of troops more than 600 strong which consisted of the right wing of the 21st Fusiliers under its colonel (Colonel Ainslie),|| with the men of the 63d under Colonel Swyny,ir drawn up on
- To Winilliam, for instance, he delegated this kind of author-
ity. — Windham's Despatch to Headquarters, 6th November 1854. t Strength, 201. X Strength of the two wings together, 278. Colonel Hors- ford commanded the battalion. § Strength 160. In speaking of the several parts of the 20th as the ' right wing ' and the ' left wing,' 1 refer to their respec- tive places in the battle-licld, and not to the places belonging to them when the regiment was drawn up on parade. II Strength, 201. Tl Strength, 466, as stated officially ; but see Note in the Appendix, showing, upon the clear testimony of Major Robert Bennett and Lieutenant Slack, that the actual strength of the ' rank and file ' was only 368. This regiment marched early
